Mucosatome



MUCOSATOME Filed June 14, 1966 20 I7 12 2 Fla 5 4 \Nvam-ro s Mun" ON J. KN APP 19 JouN E. PLEAsANTs JOHN fizeKaRzs )r:

TLC-5.4 I WA W ATToQNay United States Patent 3,415,251 MUCOSATOME Milton J. Knapp, Fort Knox, Ky. (1210 N. Taft St., Arlington, Va. 22201); John E. Pleasants, 2536 Dryden Road, Houston, Tex. 77025; and John Szekeres, Jr.,

222 Forresta Court, Hodgenville, Ky. 42748 Filed June 14, 1966, Ser. No. 558,213 Claims. (Cl. 128-305) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to us of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to a power-driven surgical instrument useful to remove tissue from the hard and soft palate and adjacent mucosa of the mouth.

Inflammatory papillary hyperplasia is a tumor-like growth of epithelial origin which occurs on the hard and soft palate and adjacent mucosa of the mouth. It is characterized by local or diffuse, erythematous, nodular formations of varying size and depth. The ideal treatment requires removal of a hyperplastic tissue.

The usual methods of removal are electro-surgery, and the combination of the use of a scalpel and curettage. Both methods have considerable disadvantages.

The electro-surgical technique will successfully remove the tissue, but is characterized by a prolonged healing time, pronounced post-operative pain and discomfort, possible post-operative bone necrosis, and therefore low operator and patient acceptance. The necessary equipment is also expensive and intricate.

The scalpel and curettage method usually results in a cut of uneven depth and only partial removal of the papillations. Eventually another attempt at removal will be necessitated by the continued proliferation of the papillations. The lack of depth control in tissue removal by this method can also cause excessive removal of healthy tissue and bone exposure.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an instrument which will remove tissue with a clean, controlled-depth excision for rapid healing.

It is another object to provide a power driven, surgical cutting blade and guide, designed to fit a standard dental handpiece, having the ability to remove a uniform thickness of tissue in a strip, intact for microscopic study.

It is another object to provide a surgical instrument having an oscillating blade for removal of a strip of tissue of uniform thickness which utilizes a guide to vary the thickness of the strip removed, but still insures that the underlying bone will not be exposed by the depth of the excision.

It is still another object to provide a surgical instrument of reasonable cost, attachable to a standard dental handpiece and capable of being driven by a standard drive system, which is small enough to be readily maneuverable in a patients mouth and yet easily dismantled for sterilization or inspection.

These and other objects will become readily apparent with reference to the following description and drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view of the mucosatome, the instrument of this invention, attached to a standard dental handpiece;

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the mucosatome detached from the handpiece;

FIG. 3 is a full section along line 33 of FIG. 2 showing the mucosatome in the environment of the handpiece;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the mucosatome blade; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the mucosatome blade and power linkage.

With reference specifically to the drawings, the mucosatome incorporates an oscillating U-shaped blade 1 and a ice housing 2 surrounding said blade on two sides. The blade 1 is sharpened along its leading edge at the base 3 and part away along the adjacent edges 4 of its two legs 5.

The housing 2 has two sides 6 which are mounted parallel to the legs 5 of the blade -1. The sides 6 extend beyond the blade 1 in a distal portion consisting of an arcuate surface 7 which is designed to contact bone or hard tissue. The arcuate surface 7 has a heel 8 and a toe 9. The depth of the cut, then, is governed by the angle of attack of the blade 1 and increases as the guiding surface 7 in its contact of the patients bone or hard tissue is rocked from the heel 8 to the toe 9.

The blade 1 oscillates about a pivot pin 10 and has shoulders 11 which are slidably mounted in grooves 13 within drive link 12, said link also being pivoted mounted on pin 10.

The oscillating blade 1 may be driven by any standard dental drive adapted to terminate in a rotating spur coupling 20. The rotary motion of the driving spur 20 may be translated through the use of an eccentric cam crankpin 19 driven by said coupling 20. The eccentric cam 18 ro tatably engages a barrel bearing 17 which in turn engages the drive 12. The barrel bearing 17 is slidably mounted within jaws 16 located at an end of said link 12 opposite the end pivotally mounted on said pivot 10.

Any standard drive and linkage system may be used to cause the blade 1 to oscillate within the sides 6 of the housing 2. In the specific drive shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 the rotary motion of the spur coupling 20 and crankpin 19 is translated to vertical and horizontal motion of barrel bearing 17 through the eccentric cam 18. The bearing 17, slidably mounted within the jaws 16, transfers only vertical motion to the link 12. The vertical motion of the link jaws 16 acts through the groove 13 in link 12 on the shoulders 11 of the blade 1 to produce in conjunction with the pivot pin 10 oscillatory motion of the cutting edge 3 about the pivot pin 10.

The degree of oscillation of the blade in this specific linkage system depends primarily on the eccentric displacement of the cam 18 in relation to the axis of rotation of the crankpin 19 and the lever arm ratio between the shoulders 11 and the pivot pin 10 and the pin 10 and the cutting edge 3 of the blade 1. Eccentric cam 18 causes bearing 17 to oscillate about the longitudinal axis of pin 19, sliding laterally in jaws 12, to translate the rotation of pin 19 through bearing 17 to reciprocating vertical force on link 13 and blade 1. It is then a matter of design, only, to provide a mucosatome wherein the blade oscillates within its housing sides.

The mucosatome has the further advantage of being readily dismountable and may be easily dismantled for sharpening or sterilization. The housing 2 is threadedly mounted on a handpiece extension 21. The extensio 21 is a hollow member with the crankpin 19 extending therethrough so that the cam 18 and bearing 17 extend from an end thereof internal to said housing 2. The spur coupling 20, attached to the opposite end of the crankpin by pin 22, then extends from the opposite end of said extension 21.

The extension member 21 also has external threads 23 whereby it may be mounted on a standard dental handpiece 50.

Pivot pin 10 has a head 30 and an annular locking groove 31. The pin 10 extends through the housing 2 blade 1, and drive link 12.

Locking lever 35 is mounted externally to said housing by screw 36. Lever 35 has a jaw 37 which engages pin 10 at its locking groove 31. The head 30 of pin 10 being of a greater diameter than the pin will not pass through the pin receiving hole 38 in the housing. When the pin 10 is mounted in the housing with the locking lever 35 3 engaged, the pin is operably mounted as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

To dismount the mucosatome extension member 21 is unscrewed from handpiece 50.

To dismantle the mucosatome, screw 36 is removed and locking lever 35 is disengaged from locking groove 31. Pivot pin may then be extracted from the housing 2.

Barrel bearing 17, driving link 12 and blade -1 may then be removed from the housing and separated. Housing 2 may be unscrewed from the extension member 21. Pin 22 may be removed from spur coupling and the coupling separated from crankpin 19. Crankpin 19 may then be extracted from extension member 21.

For a normal sharpening operation, however, it is evident that pivot pin 10 need only be removed to free the blade 1. Locking lever 35 may be slightly curved at an end 39 opposite jaw 37. End 39 is then frictionally seated on housing 2 by screw 36. By applying lateral pressure to end 39 lever 35 may be made to pivot about screw 36 disengaging jaw 37 from groove 31. This movement frees pin 10 without removing screw 36.

The blade 1 should be made of surgical steel and sharpened internally only. The angle of address of the cutting edge 3, conforms to its radius from the pivot pin 10. However, a slight clearance behind the cutting edge is desirable to avoid engaging the newly-cut tissue with the passage of the stroke.

A preferred dimension of the mucosatome as shown in FIG. 2 incoporates an overall length of about 4.6 centimeters with a blade width of about 0.6 centimeter.

We claim:

1. A mucosatome for cutting tissue in strips of a uniform and predetermined thickness comprising:

(a) a housing having twin, parallel, guiding members extending therefrom, each member having an arcuate distal surface;

(b) a U-shaped cutting blade having legs pivotally mounted within said housing, between said members, said bade being transversely disposed between said surfaces, and internally sharpened at a leading edge of its base and adjacent legs, the edge describing a fixed relationship to the pivotal mounting;

(c) means for imparting oscillating motion to the sharpened leading edge of said blade so that the sharpened leading edge of said blade oscillates about the pivotal mounting thereof, and within said the distal arcuate guiding surfaces.

2. A mucosatome for removing tissue strips of a uniform and controlled thickness comprising:

(a) a housing having a blade receiving pivotal mount;

(b) twin parallel blade guiding surfaces extending from said housing, each of said surfaces terminating in a rounded heel portion and a rounded toe portion, the

distal surface of the heel being at a greater distance from the pivotal mount than the distal surface of the toe;

(c) a U-shaped blade having a leading and a trailing edge, the leading edge being internally sharpened at the base of the U and adjacent legs, the legs of said blade being attached to said pivotal mount and the leading edge thereof positioned transversely between said guiding surfaces and at a preselected distance from said pivotal mount less than the distance of the toe portion of said surface from said pivotal mount; and

(d) a translational drive linkage connected to said blade for receiving energy from an external drive means and imparting the energy to the blade as limited oscillatory motion for oscillating the leading edge of said blade between the heel and toe portions of said guiding surfaces.

3. The mucosatome of claim 2 wherein the trailing edge of said blade, when said blade is attached to the pivotal mount, occupies a position a lesser distance from the pivotal mount than the distance from the leading edge to the pivotal mount.

4. The mucosatome of claim 2 wherein the translational drive linkage comprises:

(a) a rotatable spur coupling;

(b) a crankpin driven by said spur coupling;

(c) an eccentric cam carried by said crankpin;

(d) a cam follower bearing engaging said cam and following said cam; and

(e) a drive link means connected to said blade for imparting oscillatory motion to said bade responsive to the movement of said cam follower.

5. A mucosatome blade comprising a U-shaped cutting blade having a leading and a trailing edge, the leading edge being internally sharpened at the base of the U and adjacent legs extending from the base, the trailing edge being disposed at a lesser distance from the distal portion of the legs than the leading edge, said legs terminating in a coupling means for coupling said blade to an external blade drive means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 279,779 6/1883 Lyon 128-313 1,564,356 12/1925' Kelley 128-309 2,823,677 2/1958 Hein 128-314 LAWRENCE W. TRAPP, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 

1. A MUCOSATOME FOR CUTTING TISSUE IN STRIPS OF A UNIFORM AND PREDETERMINED THICKNESS COMPRISING: (A) A HOUSING HAVING TWIN, PARALLEL, GUIDING MEMBERS EXTENDING THEREFROM, EACH MEMBER HAVING AN ARCUATE DISTAL SURFACE; (B) A U-SHAPED CUTTING BLADE HAVING LEGS PIVOTALLY MOUNTED WITHIN SAID HOUSING, BETWEEN SAID MEMBERS, SAID BLADE BEING TRANSVERSELY DISPOSED BETWEEN SAID SURFACES, AND INTERNALLY SHARPENED AT A LEADING EDGE OF ITS BASE AND ADJACENT LEGS, THE EDGE DESCRIBING A FIXED RELATIONSHIP TO THE PIVOTAL MOUNTING; (C) MEANS FOR IMPARTING OSCILLATING MOTION TO THE SHARPENED LEADING EDGE OF SAID BLADE SO THAT THE SHARPENED LEADING EDGE OF SAID BLADE OSCILLATES ABOUT THE PIVOTAL MOUNTING THEREOF, AND WITHIN SAID THE DISTAL ARCUATE GUIDING SURFACES. 